The present disclosure relates to printing systems which include two or more integrated printing apparatuses and/or image marking engines (“IME”).
One example of an integrated printing system is disclosed in U.S. patent application number US 2006/0221159 which provides two or more IMEs which are integrated by means of a media highway. The media highway integrates the IMEs to provide transportation of a marking substrate to each IME for image marking. Notably, IMEs may be integrated horizontally, vertically, or horizontally and vertically.
Conventionally, the number of marking engines integrated within a specific printing system is chosen to satisfy a desired print rate. For example, a printing system designed to produce a maximum page rate of 100 ppm could include 4 IMEs, each capable of 25 ppm. Alternatively, the printing system could include 5 IMEs, each capable of 20 ppm.
One disadvantage associated with these conventional integrated printing systems is they only provide partial productivity when one or more of the IMEs is unable to operate for technical or service related issues.
For example, for a 4 IME system with an advertised productivity of 100 ppm (i.e. each IME producing 25 ppm), a maximum productivity of 75 ppm is attainable with 1 IME out of service. This variance in productivity from the advertised or specified throughput of the printing system may contribute to user dissatisfaction.
This disclosure provides a method and system to maintain a specified or advertised printing system throughput, while providing for the removal/disablement of one or more IMEs from the system.